Ranae's Swedish-Chicago Heritage: The Death of the Family Legend

Dec 3, 2016

The Death of the Family Legend - King Oscar II

With the advance of DNA in genealogy it was inevitable that sooner or later we could prove the truth of our proposed royal ancestry. Generations of those of us descended from Robert Albin Abrahamsson, the adopted son of Edvard Julius Abrahamsson, have told the family story of his, and therefore our, royal ancestry. I wrote about it in an earlier blog titled TRUTH or family legend? Edvard Julius Abrahamsson clearly stated that he was the adoptive father of Robert Albin. We don't know who initiated the story, perhaps Robert Albin's mother Charlotte herself did. We only know she refused to speak of it again and all of her children believed it to be the truth that Oscar Bernadotte, future King of Sweden and Norway, was his biological father. They proudly passed the information on to their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. That story persisted for 150 years. Although I did not think it logical I must admit I am more than a bit disappointed to learn definitively that

King Oscar II of Sweden was NOT my great great grandfather

For those in our family not familiar with DNA here is a brief description of why he is not our ancestor. Males have one Y chromosome and one X chromosome, while females have two X chromosomes. All men pass their Y chromosome unchanged unto their sons but not their daughters. Therefore Oscar's male descendants, generation after generation, would have the same Y chromosome as he.

There are many people throughout the Western world who claim relationship to Oscar and a company in Sweden has capitalized on that. THE BERNADOTTE FALK COMPANY for a price (and a hefty one at that) will test a man's Y DNA against the DNA of Jan Bernadotte, a proven cousin of the royal family. If the man is truly a descendant of Oscar his Y chromosome will match that of Jan Bernadotte. Our family in Sweden sent a DNA sample from a grandson of Robert Albin who descended through the male line. His Y chromosome indicated he was NOT a descendant of the Bernadotte line.

Our family legend is just that..... a legend. We will most likely never know who the biological father of Robert Albin was or why for that matter Charlotta chose to say it was Oscar II. Nor will we judge her because after all; we're here aren't we? I for one am pretty proud to be one of the many descendants of Robert Albin and Anna Karolina Abrahamson.

I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more

concerned to know what his grandson will be.

-Abraham Lincoln